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Poor Man's Email?
One of my favorite blogsports for the last couple of years is pondering what Twitter is. Here are some of the things I've come up with:
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 8,149 posts.
Society, Policy & Culture
Any year
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Technology: Everything is so amazing and nobody is happy.
“Everything is so amazing and nobody is happy.” It is true. We take for granted the miracles we get from technology, and complain when the miracles aren’t perfect. This comedian’s routine on the Conan O’Brien show is funny, mocking our … Continue reading →
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All we want are the facts, ma'am.
I've never been involved in a detective interview, but occasionally I'm interviewed by a journalist. Some publications use a quaint procedure known as fact checking ; for example, the New Yorker had a wonderful piece by John McPhee in their Feb. 9th issue on their fact-checking process. (My favorite part was about…
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Pretending to be Wise
> The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis remain neutral. > > —Dante Alighieri, famous hell expert > > —John F. Kenne…
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Daring Fireball: Copying the Wrong Thing
The key ingredient I see in successful apps, Mac or web — and, really, in creative commercial endeavors of any kind — is that the creators are building something they themselves love.
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What really happened at Ma.gnolia and lessons learned [with video]
Larry (@lhalff) and I have been recording a podcast for the past year called Citizen Garden that covers various topics related to the web, technology, and social networking. Well, given Ma.gnolia&#…
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A critique of The Black Swan
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How did we geeks become experts on macroeconomics?
There are certain topics that are certain to incite the internet. Emacs vs vi. Programming language holy wars. When it comes to programming geeks, though, I’ve got one that will get them to break out the flamethrowers . All you have to do is bring up topics like fiat currency, the gold standard, money creation, the…
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The Baby-Eating Aliens
(Part 1 of 8 in "Three Worlds Collide") • This is a story of an impossible outcome, where AI never worked, molecular nanotechnology never worked, bio…
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How Depressions Work
On Capitol Hill sit many powerful people — Congressmen, Senators, Justices — but also numerous others who do the daily work of keeping government running. And, like anyone with such a weighty responsibility, they sometimes want a break: a chance to see a movie or eat out with their spouse.
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Jason Scott: "A terrible thing happened recently. You might have missed it."
A terrible thing happened recently. You might have missed it. AOL Hometown, which itself was actually a combination of a bunch of previously acquired websites, shut down. It shut down on October 31…
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Survival tips if you find yourself in the Middle Ages?
I spend far too much of my life daydreaming about scenarios like this: I wanted to ask for survival tips in case I am unexpectedly transported to a random locat
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Philip Greenspun's Economy Recovery Plan
Minimum steps necessary to give business investors confidence in the United States
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Debunking Daniel Tammet
Lately I've been encouraged to make more of my posts unlocked. I only do that under certain circumstances, but I feel this is an important occasion because I believe I have spotted a hoax and that I am unusually qualified to unmask it. I just watched The Boy With the Incredible Brain , a video that…
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A Defense of Philosophy (against Paul Graham)
In How to Do Philosophy , Paul Graham claims that “judging from their works, most philosophers up to the present have been wasting their time.” His point is that philosophy per se is structurally flawed. How?